To take advantage of opportunities/solve problems, the need for a greater than local/cross-boundary approach can be seen. Regional cooperation is the nominal tool, yet the goal is to be greater; have greater capacity, resources, market,…. Greater is regional; working across boundaries achieves it. Cooperation is possible when people recognize such regional community. This is regional intelligence: Greater Communities solving problems, of which security is foremost; altogether “community motive.”

But when a delegation of 117 regional leaders recently visited this Canadian city, they were introduced to a whole new concept.

"Congestion is our friend, " said Larry Beasley, former city planning director for Vancouver, who has been recognized worldwide as helping create a new urban model. "Density is good."

Metro leaders were exposed to a vastly different approach to growth and development during the 11th annual LINK trip, organized by the Atlanta Regional Commission, short for "Leadership, Innovation, Networking, Knowledge."

Vancouver's strategy of density and transit is a stark contrast to the Atlanta region's road-oriented sprawl.

In the 1970s, Vancouver residents waged a 10-year battle to keep freeways from its urban core. They successfully defeated a plan that would have run a highway through its Chinatown and run along its downtown waterfront.

Now a traffic light at the edge of city limits signals that the interstate from Tijuana to Canada has come to a stop and is now a city street.

"We are the only North American city of any significance without an interstate at its core, " said Gordon Price, an urban affairs professor at Simon Fraser University, who used to serve on Vancouver's City Council.

Instead of the city drying up economically and becoming inaccessible and unlivable, downtown Vancouver has become one of the most thriving urban areas in North America.

In building a wide pedestrian and bicycle path around downtown, it created an environment free from cars.

"There's no better alternative to the car than walking, " Beasley said. "We have been doing everything in our power to make walking comfortable. We actually have fewer cars coming into the downtown area than we had 10 years ago."

A responsible restructuring of how the state pays for transportation is necessary. Until then, what we have in Hampton Roads is a problem.

The extent of the problem became increasingly clear this week as two localities delayed voting on establishment of a regional transportation authority while a third, Hampton, set an earlier-than-expected date for its vote, presumably so that it can officially and loudly reject the idea in time to influence others to do the same.

The transportation plan approved by the General Assembly and Gov. Tim Kaine is problematic; it will not provide adequate money for statewide transportation needs. Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads, where needs are far greater, were offered the bone of regional authorities: State senators and delegates, abdicating their responsibility, provided a self-help tool that, in Hampton Roads, requires the approval of at least seven of 12 localities representing at least 51 percent of the population. The population requirement has been met with the approval of Williamsburg, Newport News, Virginia Beach, Norfolk and Portsmouth. But where are the other two votes required for implementation of local taxes to pay for roads?

Advocates of the authority had hoped James City and Isle of Wight counties were going to vote "yes" this week. Instead, the localities delayed - clearly in response to the strong opposition being expressed. York has already said "no"; Hampton will likely go that way. This is dicey. There's strong anti-tax sentiment in the other localities that have yet to vote.

Yet rejection will be a body blow to the region's economy. It takes years to build roads, and it took years to get the General Assembly to agree even to this pitiful financing mechanism. …

The Cal Marsella Traveling Salvation Show hit Denver City Council on Monday.

Marsella, general manager of the Regional Transportation District, wasn't selling pie in the sky when he appeared before the council's FasTracks committee. He was selling public-private partnerships. Those partnerships have become the saving grace of FasTracks, the giant regional mass-transit project Marsella helped sell to metro Denver voters in 2004. At that time, voters were told FasTracks would cost $4.7 billion. Voters agreed to raise area sales taxes four-tenths of a cent to pay for it.

Two-and-a-half years later, the cost of FasTracks has swelled to $6.2 billion.

The escalation has left RTD foraging for complex deals to deliver its project.

Meanwhile, rising costs have left a lot of folks in the same frame of mind as Denver Councilwoman Judy Montero:

"Shocked beyond belief."

"Do people trust what they're voting on?" asked Montero, who chairs the council committee that monitors FasTracks. "Will they trust it in the future?"

...

"Nobody foresaw a 50 percent increase in the cost of steel and a 212 percent increase in the cost of copper, " Marcella insisted Monday. "There was no attempt to lowball."

Marsella's problem with the Denver council is the same as his problem with voters: Regardless of how he jiggers the numbers, RTD will struggle to give people what they expected. RTD will have to borrow more than a billion bucks more than projected. ...

A panel of Wasatch Front mayors and county commissioners gave final approval Thursday to a long-range transportation plan for the region, despite residents' concerns that the plan would harm air quality by emphasizing roads over transit.

Nearly a dozen people spoke against the plan during a meeting of the Wasatch Front Regional Council. The plan, which is known as a Regional Transportation Plan, outlines billions of dollars' worth of transportation projects to relieve congestion in five Wasatch Front counties over the next 23 years.

Most road or transit projects in these counties must be on a long-range plan before being considered for construction. The plan approved Thursday includes $14.4 billion for highways and $5 billion for transit. The plan will be updated in four years.

Dr. Brian Moench, a member of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, told the regional council that he believed building more roads would increase air pollution and thus increase the number of illnesses related to air pollution.

Moench said that at least 1, 000 people die each year along the Wasatch Front because of pollution-related illnesses.

"This master plan perpetuates and exacerbates the propensity toward motor-vehicle travel, " he said. "There is no safe level of air pollution in much the same way that there is no safe level of cigarettes for people to smoke."

Members of the Sierra Club, Friends of the Great Salt Lake, Utahns for Better Transportation and a new environmental group, Utah Moms for Clean Air, echoed Moench's concerns.

The Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce can’t be criticized for forming a regional economic development body to support and attract new businesses to the area.

But as much as anything, the new organization that was unveiled this week illustrates the historic inability of regional interests to work together for the common good.

Instead of one economic development agency, we have four in the Capital Region, operating in isolation. In doing so, they compete for the same business.

The new body, the Greater Victoria Development Agency, will provide a function in Victoria that hasn’t existed in years. For several years, Ken Stratford has operated a firm called the Greater Victoria Economic Development Commission, but it’s more of a private consulting firm that earns a living from government contracts and by providing professional advice to new businesses.

There’s a certain irony in the Greater Victoria Development Agency’s name, since in practice it only represents Victoria and Saanich. At least, those are the only two municipalities that have agreed to help fund the new body.

The West Shore communities have the West Shore Economic Development Agency. The Saanich Peninsula has the Sidney Business Association. Let’s not forget the tiny Esquimalt Economic Development Commission and its paltry $11, 000 budget.

Regional economic development takes resources. Envoys need to fly out to meetings. CEOs need to fly in and be shown around town when they get here. Not to mention the cost of marketing, research and targeted schmoozing that is part and parcel of the mission.

If these agencies pooled their money, the drive to attract business would work much more effectively.

Of course, that would lead to infighting ...

Effective regional economic development can’t happen without regional co-operation. At this point, that term remains one of the greatest local oxymorons of our time.

The region's water supply crisis is due in large part to the mishmash of disconnected entities currently responsible for water management. The nation's fastest-growing region has a fragmented water supply system that has nothing to do with regional needs or even catchment management, but everything to do with the interests of local councils. Drought and rampant population growth have made the existing system intolerable.

From July 2009, southeast Queensland's water network will operate along similar lines to the way the electricity grid does. Ownership and operation of the region's dams, desalination plants and other water treatment utilities will be in state hands. All regional councils will have a share in the distribution network (the water and sewerage pipes), while three new bodies, also owned by the councils, will sell the finished product to households and businesses.

A water grid manager will ensure water is distributed fairly across the region. Councils have been invited to submit by November their proposals on how they would distribute and sell water under the new structure. That system will replace the current structure in which 22 dams, weirs and aquifers in the region are owned by 12 different bodies, with 17 councils each operating their own water retailing business. Residents and businesses will finally see some form of transparency in the way water is priced. The regional economy will finally have one of the most important contributors to growth – a reliable and secure water supply – managed properly. Water supply and distribution will be treated in a regional context rather than according to local whim. Councils will continue to receive a revenue stream from selling water, but will pass on to the state the burden of operating and maintaining infrastructure whose importance extends far beyond municipal boundaries.

If you’ve heard the buzz in your workplace about building a younger work force and attracting more college-educated professionals to Rockford, that is a good thing.

Retaining young, knowledgeable workers was the main message Rebecca Ryan, a generational expert and economist, wanted hundreds of businesspeople to walk away with last February when she delivered a laundry list of suggestions for making Rockford a destination for young workers.

Three months later, that momentum has not died down. And a group of local leaders — from the Rockford Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, Rockford Economic Development Council, Next Rockford and recently the city of Rockford — are responsible for making sure it lives on.

The eight-person steering committee formed as a result of Ryan’s report have been at the forefront of issues from the sales-tax referendum to high-speed commuter rail. They’re getting 30-something leaders, not already in the spotlight, involved in shaping a region that is friendly and welcoming to young professionals.

Of Ryan’s 21 recommendations, four main initiatives have been tackled by the steering committee:

Create a social networking group for hundreds of young professionals living in Rockford to Janesville, Wis.

Create a job recruiting strategy for employers.

Host a hospitality tent at On the Waterfront for young professionals who’ve left Rockford to attend college or take a job elsewhere, a.k.a. boomerangers,

The 50 members of the Class of 2007 of Lead Hampton Roads, a Chamber of Commerce organization that trains future regional leaders, are all successful men and women who are pursuing exciting careers. During a visit to Gosnold Apartments for the homeless in Norfolk, however, these affluent men and women were deeply touched by the plight of those who are forced to live in the shadows of society.

As a year-end project, the class members decided to launch an innovative fund raising campaign to help the more than 650 homeless people in Hampton Roads by finding out what it’s like to be homeless.

In conjunction with Norfolk’s Office to End Homelessness and Mayor Paul Fraim’s office, the group will sponsor “A Sleep in the Park” on June 15, 2007 in Town Point Park from 7 p.m. until 7 a.m. The class members are going to sleep on the ground, without money in their pockets, transportation, cell phones or Blackberry’s.

The money raised through individual and corporate contributions will be used to furnish the nation’s first two regional supportive housing complexes for the homeless, Norfolk’s Gosnold Apartments and Cloverleaf in Virginia Beach which is nearing the start of construction. Both projects were planned by Virginia Supportive Housing.

Health care is a mini-society: complex, diverse, full of interests, some aligned, some competing. It has huge malls (large hospitals), convenience stores (walk-in clinics), do-it-yourself centres (drug and health food stores), home delivery (home care) and all manner of service personnel (doctors, nurses, therapists). It generates a lot of traffic and with constant growth, a fair bit of gridlock (wait times), bewildering inefficiency (the store sells paint but not brushes) and confusion (the fractured translations and incomprehensible diagrams that come with the offshore appliance).

Like every other province, Ontario wants to make health care work better. A long-touted solution is integration: making sure the parts work together for the benefit of the public. Don't send patients home from hospital without a plan for community care. Don't duplicate programs needlessly. Institutions should co-operate, not compete. Money should flow to where the need is, not to who has the most powerful board.

Other provinces' solution to fragmentation is health regions governed by a single board responsible for funding (and in most cases delivering) a wide range of services, from home care to hospitals, to a defined population. Ontario has opted for Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs). As of April 1 of this year, they took control of about two-thirds of Ontario's public health-care budget.

The LHINs are not quite health regions. An important distinction is that existing institutional boards will stay in place. Elsewhere, most boards disappeared or became advisory. For example, the Saskatoon Health Region board governs all three of the city's hospitals. St. Paul's, a Catholic-owned facility, retains its own board and CEO, but gets its budget from and does little without the say-so of the health region. The other two hospitals no longer have boards.

Cynics say that the LHINs are what you settle for when full-scale regionalization ...

10. U.S. regional communities - sub-State, State or multi-State -in news articles. Highlighted words are Google search terms. In this and the following section, links to websites of organizations are added to the news excerpt when this is the first time an organization has been found. A goal of this newsletter is to find every regional council in the U.S. in a news story. In most cases, where a full name is present a Google search will quickly get one to that organization.

.10Milwaukee 7 to focus on advanced manufacturingJournal Times - Racine, WI, USABut now, Kacala said, "We have a philosophy that what's good for your local community is good for the region, and what's good for the region is good for ...

.12Sovereign Deed: Potential economic sparkplug for Emmet, regionPetoskey News-Review - Petoskey, MI, USASovereign Deed is a "private civil defense" organization that offers memberships to people living in large metropolitan areas who seek aid in both man-made ... a total of 671 full-time jobs in the region, according to a study for the Northwest Michigan Council of Governments. …

.13Area leaders want Regional Growth Partnership transformed-NEW HAVEN -- As the Regional Growth Partnership prepares to move on after the departure of President Robert Santy, there is a consensus that the RGP, formed a decade ago to foster regional cooperation and development, must change.

.16Regional governments approve dust controlsKVOA.com - Tucson, AZ, USAThe Maricopa County Association of Governments is ready to do some dust busting. The association's top leadership voted yesterday to add 13 measures to a dust-control plan the county must submit to the US Environmental Protection Agency....

.24TREO going toInside Tucson Business - Tucson, AZ, USAOf particular interest in Portland, is the city's successes in the areas of urban revitalization, mass transportation, cross-jurisdictional regional planning and attracting and keeping what it calls the “creative class”...

.25Some regions report boom in home pricesChicago Tribune - Chicago, IL, USABy Dean Treftz. The housing news isn't all grim. Even as prices sag nationwide, there are several cities in the country where home values are climbing ...

.27Beaumont's goal: Regional player Crain's Detroit Business - Detroit, MI, USARoyal Oak-based William Beaumont Hospitals was born serving the heart of Oakland County, but plans to blanket the entire Southeast Michigan region as it matures....

Arts Place, as the Region Five Partner of the Indiana Arts Commission, will have a press conference, public reception, and award ceremony announcing the Region Five Grant Awards for Arts Organization Support (AOS I and AOS II), Arts Project Support (APS) and Minigrants from the Indiana Regional Arts Partnership …

.29Latimore-York Springs police split 'a sad day'York Daily Record - York, PA, USALatimore Township and York Springs will officially go their separate ways on June 30 when their regional police department is disbanded. "We've come to a meeting of the minds that we're going to be divorced, " regional police commission Chairman Mike McHugh said. "It's a sad day, ...

Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, WIWe now have the Aging and Disability Resource Center of Central Wisconsin; it was formed with the regionalization of the Aging Resource Center of Wood County, and the Aging and Disability Resource Center of Marathon County. …

.32International Peace Park celebrates 75 yearsGreat Falls Tribune - Great Falls, MT, USAThe National Geographic Society and the Glacier Field Office of the National Parks Conservation Association are working on a geotourism mapguide ... "Crown of the Continent" is a term that goes back about 100 years … term to describe the area of the Northern Rockies straddling the U.S.-Canadian border in what are now Montana, Alberta, and British Columbia. …

.33Fast-growing bamboo offers 'green' optionMail Tribune - Medford, OR, USA... no transportation from the other side of the world -- small and family-owned, preferably, instead of corporate and keeping the money in my bioregion." ...

.10A brief history of English devolutionSunday Herald - Glasgow, Scotland, UKThe new bodies would deliver regional strategies and reallocate government funding which was already earmarked for regional development agencies. ...

… Called the CVRD Regionalization Initiative, the plan changes the way RCMP in the Valley is organized. “We have a clear long-term model but we’re not going to get there overnight, ” …

.14Regional experts meet over increasing pastoralist conflicts in eastern AfricaPeople's Daily Online - Beijing, ChinaThe workshop, which is mainly focusing on disarmament of pastoralist communities, is organized under the auspices of Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a regional body that brings together Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. The workshop is the first of its kind organized by IGAD as part of its efforts to address the various peace and security challenges in the region that has been characterized by endemic violent cross-border pastoral conflicts and the continued threat of inter-state wars arising from cross-border inter and intra- communal conflicts. …

… the number of “micros” (small buses) on Valparaíso’s city streets was slashed in half. … problem, say the bus companies, is that they don’t have enough drivers … cut the number of buses from 2, 500 to just over 1, 000, a move that has had an immediate impact on this heavily public transport-dependant city. …

.16Water pipeline option rejectedCochrane Times - Cochrane, Alberta, Canada… Calgary Regional Partnership Regional Servicing Project meeting … a Calgary councillor said they are not going to consider supplying anyone else until the CRP land use planning is complete, ” …

.18Film commission gets moneyTerrace Standard - Terrace, British Columbia, CanadaThe Film Commission has recently confirmed funding agreements with communities and regions throughout Northern BC, including the Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine....

.19IBEC says west is at risk of economic downturnMayo Advertiser - Castlebar, Mayo, IrelandThe employers' group IBEC has warned the western region is at risk of an economic downturn, because efforts to achieve balanced regional development have ...

.20Private sector calls for harmonization tax laws regionallyCapital FM - Nairobi, KenyaHead of Public Policy and Corporate Relations at Coca Cola Limited Dr. Nelson Githinji said by harmonizing laws and other common programs, the region can also avoid the duplication of efforts and wastage of resources. …

.23Council collaboration means less landfilleGov monitor - London, UKRE:SOURCE, a furniture reuse project where other funders include Objective One, Big Lottery Fund and the South West Regional Development Agency, ...

.24Learning lessonsInverness Courier - Inverness, Scotland, UKExactly 25 years ago this column was expressing the hope that the newly elected Highland Regional Council would reconsider the decision not to replace the Lovat Bridge ...

"IT governance, if you're doing it right, is an enterprise thing that keeps IT from taking the rap for things that don't work, " ... research shows the more a corporate board engages in IT governance, the better the financial results, ...

.27Corporate governance: Get on messageAccountancy Age - London, UKOne of the keys to corporate governance is that it should all connect. Information should make sense in the corporate context. Everything needs to be in ...

For anybody paying a centila of attention to the movement in government in this region they can see that we are headed for regionalism. Now that maybe okay for Wayne County employees and politicians but for the people of Detroit they will be the biggest losers. ...

.11Regional CitiesBy robadlard Just a quick note about other regional cities I've been to recently. All UK cities have been changing for the better. Although I think along with other Mancunians that Manchester has been doing the best in some ways I'm keen for us not ...

.12 Jones Soda and the Seattle SeahawksBy Kate Hopkins But the reason I really like this deal is that it may be a step back to food regionalism. Seeing Coke and Pepsi, as well as Budweiser, Starbucks, McDonalds, et al, being sold throughout the country homogenizes our culture. I don't think that this is a good thing. I'm of the belief that having regional diversity in our national marketplace is a very good thing. My thinking may be a bit "pie in the sky" but regional diversity can be a way of promoting civic pride. ...

Included in the bill, there was some language to allow Systems to raise funds outside of the System grant. … (1) gifts or grants from the federal government, local or regional governments, private sources, or other sources; …

.14 By the Numbers: Top Talent Clusters for Medium-sized RegionsBy Creativity Group Just as we did last week for large metros, we list the top three medium-sized regions for each cluster. We ranked metros on three static criteria (2005):. Size of labor force: How many individuals are working in each talent cluster? ...

.15 Greenopia GlossaryBy mermaid_green Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) A regional community of growers and consumers and are sharing in both the risks and the benefits of food production. Coal tar Known human carcinogen found in beauty products, including hair products ...

We must believe in and work toward the further development of Regions. Regions as loose networks of nations, as freemarket areas, as confederations, even as federations and ultimately unions. …

.18 Survey -- Regional TransitBy Bradford Frost(UWSEM webmaster) When asked "Which THREE of these items do you think should receive the most emphasis from community leaders over the next THREE Years?" public transportation was identified as one of the three by 81 percent of respondents, ...

By Brian Mitchell(Linda Humphreys) Capacity Builder is a community development and social policy information resource, which is updated daily to provide a one-stop source for local, regional and national information on affairs that affect communities throughout the UK. ...

.20US of Appalachia in paperbackBy US of Appalachia(Dave Tabler) (The Appalachian Regional Commission actually defines Appalachia from southern New York to northern Mississippi.) It is not a definitive history of the region; instead, it is a portrait of a hidden Appalachia on the cutting edge, full of revolutionaries and pioneering stalwarts, abolitionists, laborers, journalists, writers, activists, and artists overlooked among the lineup of conventional Appalachian suspects. ...

Instead of one-size-fits-all policies, we need to calibrate policies to the needs of different regions. This means thinking spatially. On a basic level, it means recognizing that the challenges of different type of regions are different. For example, Toronto is facing critical problems of housing affordability, a lack of immigrant settlement services, and a dire shortage of public transit funds. ...

.24the unholy trinityBy Savitri D Most interesting in the article is a brief description of Latin America's plan to form regional monetary funds to compete with the IMF- Is the tide of globalization going out? Is a new era of "regionalism" on the way in? ...

As part of CDE's ongoing effort to make the Department more responsive to all our clientele, we have "Regionalized" the services we offer. Now teams of CDE specialists will provide their expertise on a region-by-region basis.

.11'The Construction of a Region: The Black Sea Case' - June14, 2007 – LondonThe aim of this presentation is to discuss the process of regionalisation in the Black Sea area applying a region building theoretical approach. Most of the literature on regions takes the existence of regions as given without asking how they come into being. I argue in this presentation that the Black Sea region is not a pre-given entity, but a construction of region-builders. For this paper, the role of three types of region builders is discussed, namely policy makers of the Black Sea countries, the European Union as an outside region builder, and transnational epistemic community. The process of region building has both an ideational component, reflecting the attempts to provide for the theoretical armature to imagine the region as a distinct entity having an internal coherence, as well as a material component, expressing the institutionalization of practical arrangements of regional cooperation.

As the Regional Growth Partnership prepares to move on after the departure of President Robert Santy, there is a consensus that the RGP, formed a decade ago to foster regional cooperation and development, must change.

Just what form that might take remains to be determined.

But area leaders — faced with two municipalities, West Haven and Guilford, that have refused to pay their RGP dues and a third, North Branford, that is considering it — took a first step toward reshaping the RGP’s future Wednesday. They agreed to form a nine-member committee to come up with recommendations.

The committee will include three members each from the RGP’s board of directors, the South Central Regional Council of Government and the Regional Leadership Council, representing businesses and institutions.

It will report back by Aug. 22, officials agreed at a joint meeting of the COG and the RLC Wednesday at the Regional Water Authority.

"We wanted to get together because there’s been some concern with the departure of Bob Santy and some municipalities opting out of the RGP, " said COG Chairman James L. Richetelli Jr., mayor of Milford.

Regional Leadership Conference Chairman Kevin F. Walsh said it’s important that the RGP continue its work.

"We feel very strongly that a public-private partnership can benefit the region, " said Walsh, publisher of the New Haven Register. "We also know that change is good" and it may be possible to improve the RGP by putting things together in a slightly different way, he suggested.

RGP Chairwoman Diane Wishnafski said that during her year leading the group, she’s heard "some of the dissatisfaction, but also the satisfaction."

Overall, "we believe we are very fortunate to have this public-private partnership, " said Wishnafski, NewAlliance Bank’s executive vice president for business and retail services.

The system for training workers in Milwaukee County is broken. That much is evident to anyone. In fact, to even call it a "system" is generous. A massive overhaul is needed.

And now it's Tom Barrett's problem to fix.

The Milwaukee mayor is taking control of the $14 million budget formerly managed by the Private Industry Council of Milwaukee County. He has hired respected consultant Donald Sykes to run the new office and has formed a transition team of business, labor and community leaders, which will meet for the first time this week.

The new Mayor's Office of Workforce Development has a long list of to do's. It must see to it that dozens of programs are coordinated and held accountable, that skills line up with jobs, that the unskilled are trained, that the system is flexible and efficient. And that whatever is done in Milwaukee County meshes with efforts across the region.

Employers have long complained that the system is fragmented and ineffective, more about social services than job training. Now, they worry that the fundamental changes so clearly needed won't happen quickly enough.

…

Which leads to the only question that really matters: Can city government create a nimble, demand-driven system that meets the needs of both employers and job-seekers?

…

Earlier this month, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the state's largest business group, released a survey that showed that many of Wisconsin's manufacturers would like to expand, but 58% said they couldn't find the workers for skilled production jobs. With a demographic tsunami about to hit manufacturing - and many other businesses - as baby boomers retire, the problem will only get worse.

All Gwinnett County Commissioner Lorraine Green knew about Fulton County Chairman John Eaves was his campaign's controversial and racially charged radio ad.

And then, on her first LINK trip with more than 100 other metro Atlanta leaders, Green got to know Eaves.

"He's one of the nicest human beings I've ever met, " Green said. "He's very thoughtful. Now I feel very comfortable having a dialogue with a Fulton County representative about meaningful issues, and that benefits all of our citizens."

In a nutshell, the best byproduct of the annual LINK trips is the number of regional relationships that form in the course of the three days when the focus is how to improve metro Atlanta.

Eaves, also was on his first LINK trip, said it was an opportunity "to see each other as individuals." He was especially pleased that he and Mike Bodker, the mayor of the newly formed Johns Creek in Fulton, got to know each other.

"We walked away saying we want to identify something that Fulton County and Johns Creek can work on together, " Eaves said.

On each LINK trip, hundreds of such connections end with pledges for regional cooperation.

But after 11 LINK trips, the Atlanta region continues to be mired in ever-growing problems — worsening traffic, a lack of transit, a decreasing water supply, multiple new governments and runaway sprawl at the expense of trees and open space.

"I think we have learned a lot from these trips, " said Sam Olens, chairman of both the Atlanta Regional Commission and the Cobb County Board of Commissioners. "It's just that we are not going from planning to implementation. The problem is that we don't have implementation authority."

An emboldened Atlanta RegionalCommission could end up being the legacy of the trip to Vancouver, where officials are thinking 100 years ahead.

Other menu sections available from this link include: Regional Development; Regional Council; Regional Commission; Regional America; Regional Asia; Regional Europe; Regional Competition; Regionalism; Intergovernmentaland other search terms. They can be sorted by date or relevance. These are among the 50 search terms I use to produce this newsletter.

My name is Tom Christoffel. I've worked in the field of intergovernmental cooperation since 1973. As a consequence, "I see regions work." Regional Community Development News is published weekly based on news reports as of Wednesday.

Making visible analysis and actions at multi-jurisdictional regional scales is its purpose. "Think globally, act locally" was innovative in its time. Today the local scale is often too small to address today's needs and opportunities. "Think local planet, act regionally, " is my candidate paradigm. (No one said we're only allowed one paradigm.)

We can see that “regional communities” are organized locally and now act both to avoid tragedy in the commons and gain benefits. An effective multi-jurisdictional regional community has DNA: it is geographically Defined; has a common Name and its Alignment is inclusive of smaller communities and participatory in larger communities. So, by scanning this compilation, reading articles and checking organizations - you too will be able to see the regional communities that already exist.

News references are found using the Google News search service. Media article links are “fair use” to transform globally scattered reports to make regional approaches visible. Links go to the publisher and do not compete with it. Such publishers are likely to have related stories and thus be seen by new customers. “Regional” is an emerging news category. There is no charge for this service and no profit is made from its use, though any user can become more aware of the topic itself.

The system is based on a geocode scheme set up for earth that focuses on established political boundaries as a basis for regional grouping of nations, states and localities. It is decimal system based to take advantage of the sort criteria for numbers in computers. It utilized the Sector Group and Region codes of the United Nations and ISO. Geographic information system technology does not solve the problem, but its tools can be used with the geocodes.

The geocode system effectively organizes Wikipedia entries as a library management and the geocodes can be used for data aggregation. This has been developed under a Creative Commons license and would benefit from a global network implementation where local users cooperatively related subnational geographic regions and component political geography.

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Earth ( we know its a spherical whole)

Humanity's Local Planet

Universe Man at the Boundary

Local Planet - Regional Space

Our Local Planet has systems of Political Geographies which combine as Regional/Greater Communities

Universe Man's place on earth is local and regional silmultaneously depending upon the system of regions, sub-regions of the planet as local wholes: continents, nations, states, provinces, districts, counties, shires, municipalities. etc., which have local regions within and between them which are capable of being greater communities at many scales.

Based on my experience as a regional planner and agency director, 1973 -2008, and in recognition of emerging "regional communities," I developed three thoughts about community that relate to the challenge of working across-boundaries as greater or regional communities. The thoughts/theses apply for communities at the scale of bonding or bridging social capital as defined by Robert D. Putnam, which is alternately local or regional. (link below)

As of 2011, considering the global financial crisis brought about by pursuit of the "profit motive," it struck me that this has come to dominate modern life. This is a relatively new invention of civilization and wasn't a concern for most of the time that homo sapiens has been on the planet.

The three thoughts below that had emerged in my experience of working on regional cooperation now represent what I now posit as the "community motive." Concern about "profit" can emerge within an established community over time, but, to my mind the "profit motive" does not exist in the wild.

1) Community precedes cooperation.2) Community is how life solves all problems.3) Security is the primary purpose of community.

These three thoughts, theses if you will, are the basis of the "community motive." Following is some exposition about each one.

As I see it, security has always been the priority for humans since the plains of Africa. That's why communities first seek to establish defensible boundaries. After the basics are in place, security focus shifts to the social and economic. Boundaries work like the membrane in the osmosis experiment most of us have seen in a science class. The membrane is a filter that lets the good things pass through, but keeps unwanted things out. (Osmosis -YouTube - 45 sec.)

The evolved political boundaries of today have consequence. The rules change when you cross them. Though marked on the ground and fortified in some instances, they are conceptual, as pictured above, with Universe Man. The boundary divides the space between local, that within, and regional, everything outside, as labeled in the second panel. The third panel repeats the image within, to show, without graphic elegance, that the land on which Universe Man sits is regional at another scale, as determined by other boundaries, and another area that's local. A territory is both local and regional, depending upon the perspective.

Communities of communities, “regional communities” are greater communities organized to solve a problem, be it managing a watershed, strengthening an economic cluster or ensuring peer competition for school sports. Regional boundaries can be imposed for administrative purposes within states, but for these to be a basis for effective cooperation, a greater community sense is needed for that geography among the people. This is true for multi-state and multi-national regional communities as well. The leaders with such a vision can build a regional community by finding that which is already in place.

This is not to suggest that community is easy to build in order to solve problems. In a crisis, humans of any culture, belief or politics can quickly come together and self-organize to save themselves and others. It was the on-the- ground response to the 9/11 attacks that demonstrated to me the deep responsiveness of human community, as well as the fundamental importance of security. Community is how humans have always survived. This, I think, extends to all life forms.